SOLAR CHE CK Solar powered lanterns BY JENNA
SOLAR CHE CK Solar powered lanterns BY: JENNA, VALERIA, ADAM V. AND HANNAH MAG.
DEFINE : THE PROBLEM The main problem is the lack of access to electricity in Yemen, the population is much greater than the amount of power they have access to. Most of the people there don’t get any electricity at all, they live completely in the darkness at night and live of off the sunlight they get during the day. They may have grown used to it but it doesn’t mean it should stay that way.
DISCOVER : HOW THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN ADDRESSED From what we gathered from the research of our Explore the Field project, we’ve concluded a few things: • Technically solar panels aren’t the ones that store the energy, the solar batteries in the panels do; developers are trying to find ways to eliminate the batteries altogether to make it possible for the energy to be stored in the panel itself • Others have found that solar energy is the easiest way to give the people of Yemen access to electricity, so they’ve started raising money and started fundraisers to restore or improve their access (UNOPS and the World Bank)
DREAM : POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS WE’VE CONSIDERED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM Instead of using a 3 D printer, we considered using a plastic bottle as our base for the lantern since plastic bottles are more accessible for the people in Yemen than 3 D printers. By using a plastic bottle as a base, we make it easier for the people there to make many of their so that they don’t have to ask for our help every time they want another solar-powered lantern.
DELIVER : OUR OWN SOLUTIONS 1. What our idea is: 2. Why we chose to do it: The idea of using materials that are accessible for our lantern to create an easy to make solar-powered lantern, was what we mostly focused on because it’s the easiest and fastest way possible to make multiple lanterns We chose to work on this project because having lack of light sources at night is a big issue people deal with in Yemen. There’s not much they can do about it themselves and since we have the resources and knowledge to help them, we will.
DELIVER : OUR OWN SOLUTIONS 3. What our progress has been (Hannah): So far we’ve started thinking about new ways to design the lantern so that we use materials that can be easily obtained by the people in Yemen (water bottles, mason jars, etc. ) 4. What challenges we’ve faced (Adam): - figuring out how to execute the project: we’ve been struggling with finding materials and finding the right design for our solar-powered lantern - Organization: we’ve had some trouble getting all of our work in order and executing the project in an organized manner
DEBRIEF : THE QUALITY OF PROCESS WE’VE GONE THROUGH AND THE PRODUCT WE ARE CREATING • We’ve gone through some different redesigning processes for our solar-powered lantern to make it more accessible and easy to make, we’ve mostly done some critical thinking and talked about which way it would be best to create the lantern • Our lantern will be simple to create, with easy to find materials but it will constructed properly so that it works and is efficient • Contacting someone that has experience with solar panels and how to work them is on our to-do list, it is something we’ve been looking forward to doing. We think it would be a good idea to get professional help so that we can have the best results.
QUESTIONS?
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